{"id":112611,"date":"2022-04-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/?p=112611"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:18:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T14:18:54","slug":"how-one-senior-developer-brings-the-startup-spirit-to-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2022\/04\/27\/how-one-senior-developer-brings-the-startup-spirit-to-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"How one senior developer brings the startup spirit to Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Microsoft Africa Development Center, in my role as executive sponsor, for dedication ceremonies we hosted in both Nigeria and Kenya. All I have to say is, \u201cWow!\u201d The energy at the ADC is simply electric. There\u2019s so much optimism and so much enthusiasm for our plans to continue hiring engineers in ADC-West (Lagos) and ADC-East (Nairobi).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spending time at the ADC reminded me of my early days at Microsoft when we were a much smaller company with a much shorter history, and I was working on a brand-new team. There\u2019s something incredibly special about being there at the beginning, which software engineer George Maina understands first-hand. Even though he\u2019s only been at Microsoft a couple of years, George was one of the first ADC employees, making him one of our most seasoned veterans and a leader to others who work on the Identity and Network Access<\/a> team in Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No stranger to being a pioneer, George has a long and successful track record as an entrepreneur working on groundbreaking technologies for the Kenyan market. That startup spirit has served him and the ADC well\u2014his team\u2019s success made investing more in the ADC an easy decision. I\u2019m so excited to see how much the center will grow over the coming months and years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n George\u2019s interview with Igor Sakhnov has been edited for clarity and length. We\u2019ve included some video snippets so you can learn more about his entrepreneurial history and his future aspirations for the Microsoft ADC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Igor: George, what got you into computers? Was it something in your blood from childhood? Or was it something that happened later on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n George:<\/strong> When I was young there were no computers in Kenya. We didn’t even have books about them. There were no computer courses. The first time I touched a computer was in primary school. We went on a school field trip to a computer lab where they were making 3D animation games. When I saw that, I knew, wow, this is what I have to do. I got to use computers in high school and then took computer science courses at different universities. If I didn\u2019t get the computer science course I wanted, I enrolled in a different one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Igor: You worked for a number of startups, which is a great way to learn how a business runs. Could you share a few of your experiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n George:<\/strong> I was involved with different startups from 2009 to around 2016, about seven years. While I was with the first one, smartphones were just becoming popular. We worked on something we called Taxi, which functioned like Uber. It never really took off, but I gained an understanding of how geolocation and routing work. It was a very, very good experience. There were only three of us in the company. Aside from technical matters, we had to learn how to make money and deal with customers. The customer’s always king. In the process, I got all-around exposure to both development and business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When that startup failed, I went to another one, where we did SMS subscriptions. Our part of Africa didn’t have something like WhatsApp, and internet penetration was not as high. We sent out daily quotes, horoscopes, jokes, weather forecasts, plus political and breaking news. In all, 13 countries here in Africa participated. The experience taught me a lot about developing for scale and that type of thing. I was able to build on the knowledge I had learned from the earlier startup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, I went to yet another startup called Kopo Kopo. It was a small company and went through a lot of restructuring. We were very close-knit, and I was involved in every aspect from business to technical. It\u2019s actually a Seattle-funded startup that does mobile money processing. At the time, it involved five countries, but I think Kenya was the biggest. Mobile money is still growing here in Kenya and Kopo Kopo has really helped. Again, we were mostly doing development. When we integrated a bank into the system, they would have their architecture, security, database, and maybe developer people attending the meeting. They\u2019d ask, \u201cWhere are your guys?\u201d I’d say, \u201cI\u2019m it.\u201d M-PESA has grown to a point where it’s now the main way people in Sub-Saharan Africa pay for things in lieu of cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My experiences with startups were truly eye-opening for me: how startups work, how you work to scale, how to look for investors, and how to become profitable. I learned a lot. That’s my startup story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From there I went to a telco, which wasn\u2019t a startup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n